Dubai To Host Arabnet Digital Summit 2013

The largest gathering of digital professionals and entrepreneurs in the Arab world will take place in Dubai on June 24-26 2013. As the leading and regional headquarters for some of the world’s top digital businesses, Dubai will host the fourth edition of the premier digital forum – The Arabnet Digital Summit 2013. ArabNet CEO Omar Christidis said that Middle East is one of the fastest growing digital markets in the world and is boosting interests of investors especially in e-commerce. “As the acknowledged showroom of the region’s digital industry, Dubai is the ideal location for the ArabNet Digital Summit.” Recently, world’s biggest digital businesses like Facebook, LinkedIn and PayPal opened their offices in Dubai. Several investments have reached the tens of millions of dollars, including recent investments in Kammelna, Namshi.com, Souq.com and Zawya.com, pointing to a sharp increase in interest in the region’s digital sector from international investors. MENA’s value of investments was the highest ever in 2012 at USD 124 million, a radical jump from USD 10 million in 2010, according to a report released by Sindibad Business. Regional web and mobile penetration rates is soaring resulting to a greater demand for digital products and services; e-commerce specifically is projected to increase 95% in the UAE and 136% in Saudi Arabia by 2015 and digital advertising is forecasted to be the fastest growing media platform in MENA over the coming three years, growing an average of 35% per year. The 3-day conference will be a platform for 1,000 attendees and 100 speakers as well as will help business executives, entrepreneurs, marketers and investors tap into the latest trends and opportunities in digital business, covering social, mobile, commerce and media and advertising, both on a regional and global level. This year, the Summit will reach out to adjacent markets beyond the Middle East, including Italy, Greece, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, India, Singapore and others. A forum is one of the highlight of the event where panel dialogues and interviews focusing on cutting-edge trends in digital business for 3 days. CEO Christidis added that this summit is a program ideal for stakeholders in the digital industry to build the insight and connections they need to grow on their business. “Driven by the large and fast growing market of young digital natives, regional demand is on the rise for e-commerce, mobile applications and content, social media tools, digital advertising and more.